Giant Bomb News

Sony Disputing Report Suggesting May 31 Deadline For PSN Restoration

No hard deadline for the return of Sony's online service.

UPDATE: Sony has informed us that Bloomberg's wording, which was the foundation of this story, is inaccurate and the May 31 "deadline" does not exist. There does not appear to be any hard deadline established, only to return services as Sony determines the appropriate security measures are in place.

Venture Beat first broke the dispute, which we separately confirmed with Sony. It's suspected the confusion may have come from this line in the recent press conference: "We are aiming to restore full services including PlayStation Store and purchasing features for Qriocity services within May 2011."

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Hey, remember last week, when Sony said that it planned to get the ball rolling with restoring its PlayStation Network services starting last week? Right, just a quick reminder that it's not last week anymore. It's this week now. So, to be clear, last week came and went, and now this is this week, and yes your PSN services still aren't up. I know, I was confused, too. Just trust me on this one.

So, uh... how's that SOCOM single-player, eh? Now, on the subject of the PSN and when-ish you might actually be able to get back online, the answer currently is: "Dunno?"

As of this morning, Sony does not have a firm timetable for getting PSN all the way back online, and is currently only stating that everything should be restored by the end of this month. This info comes from company spokesman Shigenori Yoshida, who told Bloomberg this morning that the company is currently uncertain exactly when everything will return to a live state, and that Sony has set a deadline of May 31 for all services to be restored.

Last week's plan to restore partial services fell by the wayside when Sony decided it needed to finalize testing to make sure its newly constructed system was operating correctly. So, until we get another projected time line from Sony, all we can do is sit, wait, and wonder which other version of Splash Damage's multiplayer shooter, Brink, to pick up tomorrow.
Alex Navarro on Google+

UPDATE: Sony has informed us that Bloomberg's wording, which was the foundation of this story, is inaccurate and the May 31 "deadline" does not exist. There does not appear to be any hard deadline established, only to return services as Sony determines the appropriate security measures are in place.

Venture Beat first broke the dispute, which we separately confirmed with Sony. It's suspected the confusion may have come from this line in the recent press conference: "We are aiming to restore full services including PlayStation Store and purchasing features for Qriocity services within May 2011."

--

Hey, remember last week, when Sony said that it planned to get the ball rolling with restoring its PlayStation Network services starting last week? Right, just a quick reminder that it's not last week anymore. It's this week now. So, to be clear, last week came and went, and now this is this week, and yes your PSN services still aren't up. I know, I was confused, too. Just trust me on this one.

So, uh... how's that SOCOM single-player, eh? Now, on the subject of the PSN and when-ish you might actually be able to get back online, the answer currently is: "Dunno?"

As of this morning, Sony does not have a firm timetable for getting PSN all the way back online, and is currently only stating that everything should be restored by the end of this month. This info comes from company spokesman Shigenori Yoshida, who told Bloomberg this morning that the company is currently uncertain exactly when everything will return to a live state, and that Sony has set a deadline of May 31 for all services to be restored.

Last week's plan to restore partial services fell by the wayside when Sony decided it needed to finalize testing to make sure its newly constructed system was operating correctly. So, until we get another projected time line from Sony, all we can do is sit, wait, and wonder which other version of Splash Damage's multiplayer shooter, Brink, to pick up tomorrow.

Wow, that "Welcome back" package had better get a few more additions. I feel real bad for the SOCOM guys right about now, at least Portal 2 and Brink are available on other systems, but SOCOM 4 is PS3 only. Even if the reviews hadn't been kinda mediocre, this has certainly screwed them over severely.

This must really suck for them. They had a killer lineup of games this spring and all has been fucked because of the crash. Bet you guys don't know this but 3 weeks is a looooooong time to wait for gamers, Microsoft should make a "free month of live" deal for new users, it would kill the PSN (but not really)

Nice idea though proof for me will be when it's actually up for a while, guessing with it being down this long & this much attention drawn to it I've got a feeling that whatever hacker groups that took it out before will try to go at it again unless PSN has made some major changes to the network.

I feel real bad for the SOCOM guys right about now, at least Portal 2 and Brink are available on other systems, but SOCOM 4 is PS3 only. Even if the reviews hadn't been kinda mediocre, this has certainly screwed them over severely. "

Yup. The timing of the PSN outage combined with the poor to middling reviews could possibly spell the end of SOCOM, potentially permanently (I'd love to see some sales figures on that one).

" Kind of puts a damper on the PS3 versions of Brink and LA Noire this month. "

Why L.A Noire? It's singleplayer only. "

I'm assuming without PSN, PS3 players won't be able to access the exclusive or pre-order DLC. I mentioned them specifically because those are the two games i'm mainly interested in this month. I'm getting them on 360, but I was just expressing sympathy for the PS3 fans.

" This must really suck for them. They had a killer lineup of games this spring and all has been fucked because of the crash. Bet you guys don't know this but 3 weeks is a looooooong time to wait for gamers, Microsoft should make a "free month of live" deal for new users, it would kill the PSN (but not really) "

Unless something has changed since I first signed up, you have always been able to get a free month of XBL with a new gamertag. When you go to sign up for gold for the first time one of the options is the free month.

" *dusting of the old 360* - Looks like they miss out on my Brink and LA Noir bucks. "

Isn't LA Noire a single player game? "

Plus isn't the lead platform for that PS3 as well? I would think that along with it being single player and only on 1 disc due to the higher disc space for BR would mean the no PSN downloadable content wouldn't be as big of an issue.

well I guess that gives me a good reason not to bother checking everyday. I'll just wait till next month, got this copy of darksiders I've never tried, so that will kill some time. would like to watch movies on netflix though.

" *dusting of the old 360* - Looks like they miss out on my Brink and LA Noir bucks. "

Isn't LA Noire a single player game? "

Plus isn't the lead platform for that PS3 as well? I would think that along with it being single player and only on 1 disc due to the higher disc space for BR would mean the no PSN downloadable content wouldn't be as big of an issue. "

Agent is the lead PS3 sku from Rockstar. I don't think LA Noire is, but I could be mistaken. And disc swapping isn't a big deal either way.

" *dusting of the old 360* - Looks like they miss out on my Brink and LA Noir bucks. "

Isn't LA Noire a single player game? "

Plus isn't the lead platform for that PS3 as well? I would think that along with it being single player and only on 1 disc due to the higher disc space for BR would mean the no PSN downloadable content wouldn't be as big of an issue. "

Agent is the lead PS3 sku from Rockstar. I don't think LA Noire is, but I could be mistaken. And disc swapping isn't a big deal either way. "

@Nadril: I believe MK requires you to download an online pass, right? If so, these used to be handled by the PS Store. If this is true, you may need to wait for the STORE to come back and won't be able to play MK online even if online multiplayer is restored right now.

(unless, of course, you have already downloaded the online pass on launch day. I guess sometimes it's good to be an early customer...)

" *dusting of the old 360* - Looks like they miss out on my Brink and LA Noir bucks. "

Isn't LA Noire a single player game? "

Plus isn't the lead platform for that PS3 as well? I would think that along with it being single player and only on 1 disc due to the higher disc space for BR would mean the no PSN downloadable content wouldn't be as big of an issue. "

Agent is the lead PS3 sku from Rockstar. I don't think LA Noire is, but I could be mistaken. And disc swapping isn't a big deal either way. "

You are it is, it was first slated as an exclusive before it went multiplatform unless I'm crazy.

" *dusting of the old 360* - Looks like they miss out on my Brink and LA Noir bucks. "

Isn't LA Noire a single player game? "

Plus isn't the lead platform for that PS3 as well? I would think that along with it being single player and only on 1 disc due to the higher disc space for BR would mean the no PSN downloadable content wouldn't be as big of an issue. "

Agent is the lead PS3 sku from Rockstar. I don't think LA Noire is, but I could be mistaken. And disc swapping isn't a big deal either way. "

LA Noire is the lead as well. "

Good to know. I'll be interested to see if there is any performance differences.

" This must really suck for them. They had a killer lineup of games this spring and all has been fucked because of the crash. Bet you guys don't know this but 3 weeks is a looooooong time to wait for gamers, Microsoft should make a "free month of live" deal for new users, it would kill the PSN (but not really) "

Unless something has changed since I first signed up, you have always been able to get a free month of XBL with a new gamertag. When you go to sign up for gold for the first time one of the options is the free month. "

They changed that when they renamed Silver Free. They don't give you anything now

Sorry Sony, that's about 2 weeks after I get my new PC, and a month after I ran out of patience. I might as well just sell my PS3 at this point, I'm certainly not going to risk dumping any more money into it.